@article {105477, title = {The evolutionary history of an accidental model organism, the leopard gecko Eublepharis macularius (Squamata: Eublepharidae).}, journal = {Mol Phylogenet Evol}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jan 12}, pages = {107414}, abstract = {

The leopard gecko, Eublepharis macularius, is a widely used model organism in laboratory and experimental studies. The high phenotypic diversity in the pet trade, the fact that the provenance of different breeding lines is unknown, and that distinct Eublepharis species are known to hybridize, implies that the continued use of E. macularius as a model requires clarity on the origin of the lineages in the pet trade. We combine multi-locus sequence data and the first range-wide sampling of the genus Eublepharis to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the Eublepharidae and Eublepharis, with an updated time-tree for the Eublepharidae. Our sampling includes five of the six recognized species and additional nominal taxa of uncertain status comprising 43 samples from 34 localities plus 48 pet-trade samples. The Eublepharidae began diversifying in the Cretaceous. Eublepharis split from its sister genera in Africa in the Palaeocene-Eocene, and began diversifying in the Oligocene-Miocene, with late Miocene-Pliocene cladogenesis giving rise to extant species. The current species diversity within this group is moderately underestimated. Our species delimitation suggests 10 species with four potentially unnamed divergent lineages in Iran, India and Pakistan. All 30 individuals of E. macularius that we sampled from the pet trade, which include diverse morphotypes, come from a few shallow E. macularius clades, confirming that lab and pet trade strains are part of a single taxon. One of the wild-caught haplotypes of E. macularius, from near Karachi, Pakistan, is identical to (10) pet-trade samples and all other captive populations are closely related to wild-caught animals from central/southern Pakistan (0.1-0.5 \% minimum pairwise uncorrected ND2 sequence divergence).

}, issn = {1095-9513}, doi = {10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107414}, author = {Agarwal, Ishan and Bauer, Aaron M and Gamble, Tony and Giri, Varad B and Jablonski, Daniel and Khandekar, Akshay and Mohapatra, Pratyush P and Masroor, Rafaqat and Mishra, Anurag and Ramakrishnan, Uma} } @article {5907, title = {Neotype designation for Calotes versicolor Daudin, 1802 (Sauria: Agamidae) with notes on its systematics.}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4126}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, pages = {271-9}, abstract = {

Calotes versicolor Daudin, 1802 is one of the most widespread agamid lizard species which was described without a locality. The type specimen of the species has long been considered lost; however most workers considered Pondicherry as the type locality for the species. Studies by Zug et al. 2006 confirmed that C. versicolor is a complex of multiple species which necessitates fixing type locality and specimen for the species in order to resolve the systematics of the species complex. An adult male from Pondicherry was collected and is here designated as the neotype. A re-description of the species is provided along with notes on systematics of the species.

}, issn = {1175-5334}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4126.2.7}, author = {Gowande, Gaurang and Mishra, Anurag and Mirza, Zeeshan A} } @article {8759, title = {A new species of the Cyrtodactylus (Geckoella) collegalensis (Beddome, 1870) complex (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Western India.}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4170}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 23}, pages = {339-354}, abstract = {

A new species of Cyrtodactylus (Geckoella) from the C. collegalensis complex is described based on a series of specimens from western and central India. Morphological and molecular data support the distinctiveness of the new form, which can be diagnosed from other Cyrtodactylus (including other Geckoella) species by its small body size (snout to vent length to 56 mm), the absence of precloacal and femoral pores, no enlarged preanal or femoral scales, and a dorsal scalation consisting wholly of small, granular scales. The new species is most closely related to C. collegalensis, C. speciosus and C. yakhuna, from which it differs by the presence of a patch of enlarged roughly hexagonal scales on the canthus rostralis and beneath the angle of jaw, its relatively long limbs and narrow body, and a dorsal colour pattern of 4-6 pairs of dark spots.

}, issn = {1175-5334}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4170.2.7}, author = {Agarwal, Ishan and Mirza, Zeeshan A and Pal, Saunak and Maddock, Simon T and Mishra, Anurag and Bauer, Aaron M} }